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Paralympian Dylan Alcott has opened up about his sex life with his long-time partner Chantelle Otten.
The 34-year-old former Australian of the Year, who has been dating his sexologist girlfriend for over four years, said he feared intimacy as a young man.
But now he wants to dispel myths about disability and sex.
‘People with disability can have sex in whatever way they can have sex,’ Dylan said during an interview on TMZ’s Big Down Under podcast.
‘I think what people think is a standard way [to have sex], not many people are doing that.
‘I’m lucky that I can have sex and I have a beautiful partner Chantelle.’
Paralympian Dylan Alcott has opened up about his sex life with his long-time partner Chantelle Otten
‘I think what people think is a standard way [to have sex], not many people are doing that,’ he said. ‘I’m lucky that I can have sex and I have a beautiful partner Chantelle’
The actor and sports commentator, who has used a wheelchair since he was child, said he had always had ‘supportive partners’.
Elsewhere, Dylan discussed the prejudice some people with disabilities face when it comes to sex and how he and Chantelle wanted to change perceptions.
‘But what breaks my heart the most is… What’s the best thing in your life, your family and your relationship,’ he said.
‘Most people would say that and imagine if you never get the opportunity to have that because people think you can’t. That sucks.
‘We want to change that.’
It comes after Dylan made the painful admission he used to struggle with his body image and that turning to sports saved his life.
‘I’ve always loved sport, but I couldn’t really access it as a kid. What really saved my life was finding Paralympic sport,’ Dylan said in a cover story for Men’s Health Australia last August.
‘Not just the physical and the mental health benefits I got, but finding my community – other people with disability who were thriving.’
Dylan recently made the painful admission he used to struggle with his body image and that turning to sports saved his life
The Melbourne-born athlete added he wished he had seen people with disabilities competing in sport when he was a child, as it would have greatly improved his morale.
‘I never saw anybody like me doing anything like this. That would have been life-changing for me when I was really struggling with my own self-worth and my body image. It would’ve been incredible.’
Dylan revealed by getting involved in wheelchair sports he found a new sense of purpose, which gave him an improved life outlook.
‘It made me feel free. Free of my own lack of self-worth, free of getting bullied. I was out there having a crack. It was just amazing.’
Dylan famously won a gold medal with the Australian wheelchair basketball team, the Rollers, at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games and took home a silver medal at the 2012 London Games.
He retired after the January 2022 Australian Open and has turned to commentating at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The esteemed Paralympian recently struck a deal to create a fiction series for middle-school-aged kids to celebrate and normalise disability, difference and inclusion.
He has been actively pursuing an acting career and has appeared as a cast member of the Stan streaming series Bump.
Dylan was born with a tumour wrapped around his spinal cord, which resulted in him becoming a paraplegic after having surgery to remove it.
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